Now, just over five months after that "launch window" officially came to a close and almost nine years since Pikmin 2 first graced the Nintendo Gamecube, Pikmin 3 has finally been released in North America. While the game is a fine example of Nintendo's unrepentantly joy-filled game design, a number of flaws keep it from being the kind of system-seller the Wii U desperately needs right now.

Pikmin 3 introduces three new protagonists that don't even share a home planet with the familiar Captain Olimar and Louie of previous Pikmin games. Unlike that treasure-seeking duo, Alph, Brittany, and Charlie are on an interstellar mission to find food to nourish their dying planet. A crash landing splits up the explorers, and Alph has to use the plant-like Pikmin to find his travelling companions, the key to the busted spaceship, and the giant, life-giving fruit they were searching for in the first place.

If you're familiar with the first two Pikmin games, you know the light real-time-strategy-meets-action-brawler-Metroid-style-exploration on offer here. The tiny Pikmin that follow your character in a miniature horde can be thrown around as a bit of directed force at a wide array of bug-like enemies. The Pikmin can then pick up those enemy carcasses and drag them back to their onion-like pods to create even more Pikmin seeds, replacing defeated troops and multiplying your force and abilities. At various points, you'll send your Pikmin in to break down barriers, build bridges out of broken flower pots, dig up buried items, and perform other assorted chores.

Selecting and guiding a set of up to 100 different Pikmin at once is a job that's crying out for the fine-tuned control of a mouse and keyboard. Nintendo does the best it can with the Wii U's control options, but each one runs into its fair share of problems. When using the system's touchscreen-equipped GamePad, the left analog stick is used both for movement and directing the touchy targeting reticle, which determines where thrown Pikmin will land. During the slower portions of the game, this is merely annoying, requiring you to stop and nudge the stick gently in order to change your target without also moving your carefully positioned character. It's downright frustrating, though, during action sequences, when you often have to quickly run in one direction and then stop in place and try to gently nudge the reticle in another. Some sort of dual-stick control seems like an obvious way to remedy this situation, but the right analog stick is wasted on mere camera control.

Things are slightly better when using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as a secondary control option. In this case, you run with the analog stick and aim by pointing the Remote at the screen, allowing for movement in one direction and Pikmin attacks in another with relative ease. Unfortunately, this control mode makes it awkward to also use the mini-map and touchscreen options shown exclusively on the GamePad rather than on the TV itself. While playing with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, I had to prop the GamePad awkwardly on its stand on the coffee table in front of me and put down the controller often to reach over and manipulate the screen. The lack of buttons on the Wii Remote also means this control scheme is missing the handy "dismiss" function that arranges your Pikmin into tight little segregated groups for easy selection.

In either control scheme, gathering up your Pikmin often feels like a chore. When the little buggers get shaken off by an enemy, for instance, you have to frantically aim your reticle and whistle them back to your position to reactivate them. Invariably, a few Pikmin will get lost in this process and simply stand around uselessly until you notice and manage to scoop them back up into your group. In general, the Pikmin show very little autonomy and require a good deal of micromanagement to keep them productively on task and safe from enemy attacks.

Pikmin 3 brings back the fire-resistant red Pikmin, water-resistant blue Pikmin, and electricity-conducting yellow Pikmin for another round, letting you switch between the groups with a quick button tap. It also adds two new varieties to the mix: hard-headed rock Pikmin that are strong but slow and weak, hovering winged Pikmin that can cross long gaps and lift things high above the ground. The new Pikmin types add more variety to the challenges on hand, but for the most part the puzzles quickly break down to seeing a familiar situation and then selecting the appropriate type as needed. You'll also run into plenty of situations where you see a new type of challenge and say to yourself, "Oh, I'm sure I'll find the right kind of Pikmin to deal with that later."

The game also goes beyond its predecessors with its ability to switch control between your three different protagonists, each of which can control their own group of Pikmin. For the most part, this is used as a simple puzzle mechanic—simply throw a companion and a selection of Pikmin to an out-of-the-way area you can't reach yourself, then have that group go explore on its own until it can build some sort of bridge or ramp to allow the two groups to meet up again.

Nintendo also tries to combine this feature with the Wii U GamePad to enable a bit of single-player multitasking. At any point, you can tap on the GamePad screen to pause the action and direct one Pikmin group to a known point on the map while you continue to directly control another. It's a great system in theory, but in practice the group you're not watching will often end up getting stuck or attacked by enemies while you're not looking. There's no option to automatically direct a separated team to do more complicated tasks, either, so you're forced to constantly switch back and forth and offer new commands in order to make efficient use of this feature.

This multitasking is an apparent effort to help with the crushing pressure put on players by a strict timing system based on a day-night cycle. As in previous Pikmin games, you can only control Pikmin for roughly 15-minute stretches when the sun is out. As the in-game day comes to an end, a large countdown appears, telling you to stop what you're doing to gather up your Pikmin so they can hide in their ship for the night and so you can drink a glass of juice derived from the fruit collected on the planet's surface.

The idea, I suppose, is to add some tension to what would otherwise be a lazy bit of gentle and carefree exploration (not that this would be such a bad thing), but it can lead to some weird situations. Multiple times, I had a day end while I was in the middle of a tense battle with a giant, time-consuming boss. While I could easily continue the battle the next day, having to stop in my tracks and collect my Pikmin was jarring to say the least. In general, being forced to halt your progress and restart from a central location every few minutes does quite a number on the game's pacing.

If I sound like I'm nitpicking about these design decisions, it's only because they get in the way of what could have been a very enjoyable game. The environments continue the Pikmin tradition of beautiful, post-apocalyptic beauty and grand scale, and they look even better now that they're in HD. Finding all the hidden nooks and crannies of each well-designed map requires some decent puzzle-solving logic, but it never gets overly frustrating. When the pacing and control issues don't get in the way, it can be a joy just wandering these tiny worlds with your Pikmin in tow, alternating between relaxing exploration and tense battles with inventive, giant creatures.

It's a shame, then, that the technical problems get in the way of that enjoyment so often. As it stands, Pikmin 3 is a game worth checking out if you already have a Wii U, but it's not the game that will convince you to run out and buy Nintendo's latest system.

The Good

Wonderfully designed environments rendered beautifully in HD

Puzzles that toe the line between uninteresting and frustrating

Pikmin are still incredibly cute

The Bad

Two control options, and neither one is completely satisfying

Herding Pikmin is like herding cats

Day-night cycle absolutely ruins any sense of pacing

The Ugly

Watching a Pikmin struggle and die because of an errant throw you made. RIP, little guy!

Verdict: Try It

The orange is actual size. The Pikmin are just tiny. That's the implication, at least.

The orange is actual size. The Pikmin are just tiny. That's the implication, at least.

The Pikmin are easiest to corral when they're on a narrow pathway like this.

Oh, there's an electrical wire? Better use the electrical Pikmin...

People in glass houses shouldn't throw Rock Pikmin.

There's an epic scale to the bosses that makes each battle a major event.

Gathering up those Pikmin after the bird flings them about is not going to be fun.

Promoted Comments

I noticed at least two issues that could have been solved by opening up the in-game control tutorial or in-game manual to review the controls? I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Quote:

During the slower portions of the game, this is merely annoying, requiring you to stop and nudge the stick gently in order to change your target without also moving your carefully positioned character. It's downright frustrating, though, during action sequences, when you often have to quickly run in one direction and then stop in place and try to gently nudge the reticle in another.

Press R on the gamepad to move the aiming reticle without moving the character.

Quote:

The lack of buttons on the Wii Remote also means this control scheme is missing the handy "dismiss" function that arranges your Pikmin into tight little segregated groups for easy selection.

When playing with Wiimote+Nunchuck you shake the nunchuck to dismiss the Pikmin.

45 Reader Comments

The game was crying to have control with the touchpad. Just let you "flick" pikmin to throw them. Or circle them to get a group.I mean the obviousness of using the control pad to directly control pikmin and them NOT doing that is astounding.

Other companies can get some breaks for not using the touchpad properly with games. But Nintendo itself should have known this was coming!To have 1st party games still not use the touchpad to full potential really shows me Nintendo doesn't know what it is doing with the touchpad controller itself. No wonder third party devs are dropping support left and right, let alone consumer interest.

Well if i dont recall wrong, is been years since i did play the previous pikmin games on the cube, they did suffer from the same things explained in the review, specially in the control department, and eventually i did learn to work with them, therefore it might be the same thing here, i will pick it as soon as it will be arriving in the country.

And also just for info the other two previous games werent exactly hughe numbers sellers either, although i agree the number if WiiU units sold hurt the games performance of this game, and that more games are needed to improve WiiU sales overall, this series is not one of the most sold nintendo franchises, and sadly so because it is a good series that offer good things for avid gamers.

I haven't played any of the previous series, but it sounded interesting enough that I'll probably download it sometime this week. Probably won't get to it anytime soon though, and my game backlog just continues to grow.

I noticed at least two issues that could have been solved by opening up the in-game control tutorial or in-game manual to review the controls? I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Quote:

During the slower portions of the game, this is merely annoying, requiring you to stop and nudge the stick gently in order to change your target without also moving your carefully positioned character. It's downright frustrating, though, during action sequences, when you often have to quickly run in one direction and then stop in place and try to gently nudge the reticle in another.

Press R on the gamepad to move the aiming reticle without moving the character.

Quote:

The lack of buttons on the Wii Remote also means this control scheme is missing the handy "dismiss" function that arranges your Pikmin into tight little segregated groups for easy selection.

When playing with Wiimote+Nunchuck you shake the nunchuck to dismiss the Pikmin.

Well if i dont recall wrong, is been years since i did play the previous pikmin games on the cube, they did suffer from the same things explained in the review, specially in the control department, and eventually i did learn to work with them, therefore it might be the same thing here, i will pick it as soon as it will be arriving in the country.

I actually foudn the controls worse than previous Pikmin games. There your throws were a set distance form you at all times, so rotating in place with one analog stick was pretty easy. here, they let you control the reticle distance too, which makes it quite a bit wonkier. I also miss the ability to huddle Pikmin to one side with the second stick.

After playing it for a couple hours, I thought the same thing. I probably lost over 70 pikmin on the first boss because it was so hard to position myself to throw the rock pikmin at the boss, without him charging at me and trapping my pikmin. I don't know why they couldn't make the right joystick control the ridicule.

I haven't tried the wiimote and nunchuck, but that sounds a lot better. I have a kickstand on the gamepad, so I can just put that on the coffee table in front of me.

Its nice to finally be able to see the Pikman games in HD but its disheartening to hear that it has these design flaws built into it.

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

Well if i dont recall wrong, is been years since i did play the previous pikmin games on the cube, they did suffer from the same things explained in the review, specially in the control department, and eventually i did learn to work with them, therefore it might be the same thing here, i will pick it as soon as it will be arriving in the country.

I actually foudn the controls worse than previous Pikmin games. There your throws were a set distance form you at all times, so rotating in place with one analog stick was pretty easy. here, they let you control the reticle distance too, which makes it quite a bit wonkier. I also miss the ability to huddle Pikmin to one side with the second stick.

Oh Ok, i hope is not as bad as it sounds, Thanks for the input, appreciated.

I beat the story mode last night and absolutely loved the game. Puzzles were great, art direction and design is wonderful and the music is extremely charming. I agree that the controls could have been fine tuned a bit more. I actually think the wii-mote controls are near perfect, but there should have been an option to bring up a map for multi-tasking, maybe by pressing the 1 button, instead of solely relying on the gamepad for that purpose, but that mild awkwardness hardly got in the way of my enjoyment of the game. I also preferred the 3 camera distance views of the first two games over the camera re-center of the new one.

I gotta say though, controlling the pikmin isn't even close to as hard as this critic makes it sound, its really simple and straight forward, and "herding cats" could not be more inaccurate to mine and my girlfriends (who has also been loving the game) experiences. Sure it can be tough to gather them all right away when you swarm a boss and it shakes them off, but dealing with that is part of the puzzle of the boss, and there are almost always ways to avoid it happening.

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

The only game I heard coming out this winter is the Zelda Windwaker HD remake. The flagship games like Super Smash (which I think will help in console sales immensely), Metroid, or new Zelda are roughly set for next year. I just think they're going to take a massive decrease it sales come Christmas (as if their sales have been any better).

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

The only game I heard coming out this winter is the Zelda Windwaker HD remake. The flagship games like Super Smash (which I think will help in console sales immensely), Metroid, or new Zelda are roughly set for next year. I just think they're going to take a massive decrease it sales come Christmas (as if their sales have been any better).

Have people already forgot that we get Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Super Mario 3D World this year as well? Those are definitely going to have some pull.

This was finally the game that had me considering the possibility of picking up a WiiU, but now I'm even less sure. Maybe once the price plummets. Of course, I should probably actually finish the first two first anyway... (see also "ever growing backlog").

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

The only game I heard coming out this winter is the Zelda Windwaker HD remake. The flagship games like Super Smash (which I think will help in console sales immensely), Metroid, or new Zelda are roughly set for next year. I just think they're going to take a massive decrease it sales come Christmas (as if their sales have been any better).

Have people already forgot that we get Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Super Mario 3D World this year as well? Those are definitely going to have some pull.

Thanks.

I see some value in Super Mario. Donkey Kong is questionable. I think thats a good buy if you already have the WiiU, not one to push you to get it.

It sold around 30,000 units first week in Europe, estimating from Chart-Track. That's not the kind of number that will have this game selling even 500,000 worldwide, let alone reviving the Wii U.

the wii u has also done abysmally in europe, so far all we know those could be gangbusters numbers for that region. it (meaning early pikmin 3 sales) has been doing much better in other regions, as far as i know.

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

The only game I heard coming out this winter is the Zelda Windwaker HD remake. The flagship games like Super Smash (which I think will help in console sales immensely), Metroid, or new Zelda are roughly set for next year. I just think they're going to take a massive decrease it sales come Christmas (as if their sales have been any better).

Have people already forgot that we get Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Super Mario 3D World this year as well? Those are definitely going to have some pull.

I don't think Rayman Legends, Platinum's Wonderful 101, Sonic Lost World, and even Wii Party and Wii Fit can be dismissed either. Whether they're individually system sellers in their own right or not, those combined with the games already available make for a pretty compelling experience come the holidays.

And for what it's worth re: the article, I've been playing through the Wii control ports of Pikmin 1 and 2 lately and haven't had nearly the issues the reviewer seemingly had with directing the Pikmin. The other critiques seemed to mainly come down to whether you enjoy the Pikmin game concept or not rather than actual technical faults as they were described.

The game was crying to have control with the touchpad. Just let you "flick" pikmin to throw them. Or circle them to get a group.I mean the obviousness of using the control pad to directly control pikmin and them NOT doing that is astounding.

Especially since Nintendo actually implemented that control scheme in Nintendoland, so it's not like the idea never occurred to them.

Luckily, the wiimote control scheme is awesome. Way more polished than the New Play Control Wii games, despite Kyle's apparent inability to figure them out. PROTIP: The split controller design of the wiimote makes it easy to leave the gamepad in your lap.

This was finally the game that had me considering the possibility of picking up a WiiU, but now I'm even less sure. Maybe once the price plummets. Of course, I should probably actually finish the first two first anyway... (see also "ever growing backlog").

I haven't played it, so I can't comment from any position of knowledge, but I will note the game has an 87 on Metacritic, so Kyle's review is not the majority opinion.

I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

I noticed at least two issues that could have been solved by opening up the in-game control tutorial or in-game manual to review the controls? I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Quote:

During the slower portions of the game, this is merely annoying, requiring you to stop and nudge the stick gently in order to change your target without also moving your carefully positioned character. It's downright frustrating, though, during action sequences, when you often have to quickly run in one direction and then stop in place and try to gently nudge the reticle in another.

Press R on the gamepad to move the aiming reticle without moving the character.

Quote:

The lack of buttons on the Wii Remote also means this control scheme is missing the handy "dismiss" function that arranges your Pikmin into tight little segregated groups for easy selection.

When playing with Wiimote+Nunchuck you shake the nunchuck to dismiss the Pikmin.

Is it possible to get this comment added to the article as a top comment or whatever? If this is correct, then the article needs to be corrected or this comment should be highlighted.

I don't see it as a big deal that Kyle overlooked these controls, especially if they weren't highlighted in the tutorial. If you used one control scheme during the tutorial you might not even see the tutorial part for the other scheme.

But, once the information is out there, the article should feature some kind of correction now, right?

I noticed at least two issues that could have been solved by opening up the in-game control tutorial or in-game manual to review the controls? I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Quote:

During the slower portions of the game, this is merely annoying, requiring you to stop and nudge the stick gently in order to change your target without also moving your carefully positioned character. It's downright frustrating, though, during action sequences, when you often have to quickly run in one direction and then stop in place and try to gently nudge the reticle in another.

Press R on the gamepad to move the aiming reticle without moving the character.

Quote:

The lack of buttons on the Wii Remote also means this control scheme is missing the handy "dismiss" function that arranges your Pikmin into tight little segregated groups for easy selection.

When playing with Wiimote+Nunchuck you shake the nunchuck to dismiss the Pikmin.

These are fair points, and I indeed missed these elements of the control scheme. After trying the game again with the new knowledge, however, I don't feel the overall complaints I had with the game are changed fundamentally.

Thanks Kyle. Personally I do not like the gamepad/pro controller scheme much either from the 1-2 minutes I tried playing with it. Miyamoto himself has said his preferred option for this game is the wiimote + nunchuck and I think they just had to put the gamepad/controller controls in for the users who don't have wii remotes.

I think the Wiimote scheme is pretty good but opinions vary on the wiimote, of course. I would say fans of IR pointer controls similar to other games on the Wii shouldn't be too wary of the controls in this game. As someone who is new to the series except for playing a few challenge levels in Pikmin 2 GCN a few weeks ago, I'm finding the Wii-based controls to be easier to use than the GCN ones.

Let me put it another way. The puzzle are interesting and not frustrating. They are between the two extremes I noted.

Better?

You should update the article then. Because "toe the line" means that the game is very, very close to being uninteresting and frustrating i.e. for some players it will cross the line and become frustrating. Very different from "interesting and not frustrating".

I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Due diligence is too much bother for today's journalists.

I never pay too much attention to Kyle Orland's Nintendo reviews. While he is happy to review the various re-releases and adaptions of repetitious war games that base themselves solely on post-apocalyptic fantasies, a completely re-designed and re-imagined Mario or Zelda is absolutely not permissible because it is "just another game in an old franchise - no new IPs".

If Orland would have his way, Nintendo would be iOS only and compete with Angry Birds for $0.99 plus tax. That, or they would have to release Call of Pikmin: THROW

I loved Pikmin 1 and 2, but I definitely have issues with Pikmin 3 that make it less than the classic that the other two were:

Story is way too short. My daughter finished it in one night. It took weeks to do that with the previous two games.

As stated, the game pad usage was not thought out at all. The game feels like the game pad was tacked on last minute at best, or forced on the developers against their will at worst. It actively gets in the way of the gameplay.

In fact, this really feels less like a WiiU game, and more like a poor port of a Wii game to the WiiU. Which is what I believe it is. It feels like they had a good start on making it for the Wii, the story was nearly complete, just another few months to create maybe another dozen puzzles, and then it could be published for the Wii. Then Corporate comes down and says "this is great! Make it for WiiU instead!" And we're dealing with the results.

I understand its easy to skip the tutorials in this game (thank goodness as some recent nintendo games had the opposite issue - Zelda SS anyone?) but before writing a review criticizing the controls, I would expect the reviewer to look at the manual and confirm his criticisms are accurate.

Due diligence is too much bother for today's journalists.

I never pay too much attention to Kyle Orland's Nintendo reviews. While he is happy to review the various re-releases and adaptions of repetitious war games that base themselves solely on post-apocalyptic fantasies, a completely re-designed and re-imagined Mario or Zelda is absolutely not permissible because it is "just another game in an old franchise - no new IPs".

If Orland would have his way, Nintendo would be iOS only and compete with Angry Birds for $0.99 plus tax. That, or they would have to release Call of Pikmin: THROW

You do realize I raved about New Super Mario Bros. U and called it the third best game of last year, right?

I loved Pikmin 1 and 2, but I definitely have issues with Pikmin 3 that make it less than the classic that the other two were:

Story is way too short. My daughter finished it in one night. It took weeks to do that with the previous two games.

As stated, the game pad usage was not thought out at all. The game feels like the game pad was tacked on last minute at best, or forced on the developers against their will at worst. It actively gets in the way of the gameplay.

In fact, this really feels less like a WiiU game, and more like a poor port of a Wii game to the WiiU. Which is what I believe it is. It feels like they had a good start on making it for the Wii, the story was nearly complete, just another few months to create maybe another dozen puzzles, and then it could be published for the Wii. Then Corporate comes down and says "this is great! Make it for WiiU instead!" And we're dealing with the results.

Shorter than the others? Shorter than Pikmin 2 perhaps, but you do remember that the first Pikmin had a hard 30-day time limit, right? At ~15 minutes/day, that's a maximum length of 7 1/2 hours before it's game over, win lose or draw.

The game came out a while ago here in Australia, so I've had plenty of time to play through it.

The controls are absolutely fine.

In many ways, I prefer the old GameCube controls, but that is probably due more to familiarity (from playing through the original games so many times). The main thing I missed was the ability to "nudge" the Pikmin with the C-stick. The "charge" ability has replaced this to some degree, and does a better job at swarming enemies, but I really did like the ability to move the Pikmin around manually with the C-stick.

However, the Wiimote+Nunchuck controls are perfectly fine. I didn't experience the issues mentioned in the review at all. I played through the game with the Wiimote controls, while having the gamepad sitting in my lap consulting the map constantly.

At no point did I feel that the controls were taking me out of the game. They are very natural. Dismissing the Pikmin with a shake of the Nunchuck is possible, and becomes second-nature after a while.

Pathfinding wasn't perfect. It was, in reality, probably a bit better than the previous games, but the lack of an ability to "C-stick nudge" the Pikmin caused a few issues. However, these were minor - just an occasional annoyance.

I'd complain about the length of the game more than anything. It's not a ridiculously short game, about the same length as Pikmin 1, but I really wanted more. However, I'd certainly not complain about the controls.

The question becomes now if this isn't going to be a big system seller, what big name system seller exclusives does Nintendo have ready for the 2013 holiday season when it goes head to head with the other next gen systems for a share of the consumers wallet?

My understanding is most exclusive big name titles wont hit the WiiU until 2014.

The only game I heard coming out this winter is the Zelda Windwaker HD remake. The flagship games like Super Smash (which I think will help in console sales immensely), Metroid, or new Zelda are roughly set for next year. I just think they're going to take a massive decrease it sales come Christmas (as if their sales have been any better).

Have people already forgot that we get Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Super Mario 3D World this year as well? Those are definitely going to have some pull.

I'm prob more excited about the new DK game then another Super Mario. There's only so much Mario I can take jumping on Goomba heads and turtle shells. The poor launch has pretty much killed my liking of Super Marios. I was pretty much forced to play nothing but Nintendo Land and Super Mario when the Wii U first released.

Wow. So you are dinging this game because you couldn't have arsed yourself with the task of reading the manual?

You can dismiss your troops with the shake of the nunchuk... as someone else explains.

You know you are the only person reviewing this title that complained about the controls. The game works like a champ with the Wii Remote Plus/Nunchuk... perhaps you're not very good with this controller? Hardly seems fair you would ding a game for your own failings.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.